Country Kids from Coombe Mill

Posted on July 25th, 2014

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Strawberries, Play and Enterprise

Every summer we love to go fruit picking at Pencarrow House and Gardens. It is only 15 minutes drive from us and we all love the raspberries there. However this year they are not tending the fruit or opening for PYO to the public. I have loved all the strawberry picking posts coming in each week on Country Kids and felt we were missing out. Then I remembered Trevathon Strawberry Farm which we pass on our way to the beach. Nick was keen to visit here too as we knew the owners breed wallabies and Nick was after some companions for our Bruce and Shelia. We set off with the triplets and one of Clio’s friends after an early lunch to give ourselves a few hours before the afternoon train ride.

We had no idea what to expect having never visited before and were delighted to discover free parking, a busy shop with farm goodies and gifts and a lovely looking restaurant where you could eat inside or out and which lead onto a play area and open meadows.

The children each took a punnet and listened to directions to the PYO fields. However it took us a while to get there as they ran off to play first.

The zip wire was huge and left Nick wondering how on earth they had passed this with their insurance company as it was bordering on dangerous with the huge spring back at the end. Thankfully there was sand and tyre chippings underneath as the triplets did fall, partly as they had ignored the instructions to go one at a time and all bundled on together!

The tunnel slide was equally popular; I rather fancy one of these for Coombe Mill

Finally we picked up our punnets and headed passed ripening fields of wheat to the strawberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries. We sampled them all before the children all opted for strawberries and Nick for gooseberries. There were plenty of strawberries to go round as the field stretched out for acres and each row was teaming with fruit.

Nick and I had time for a coffee in the sun and a look at the wallabies while the children continued to fill their punnets.

Finally they returned and we loaded our haul onto the shop counter. It came to £25 but we had a full afternoon’s entertainment and a lot of fruit to show for it so it felt like good value.

Back at Coombe Mill we set to work making strawberry muffins.

Designing creative posters in the sun the children planned to take these with the muffins to sell them at the train ride and round the properties after. Three trays of tempting warm muffins sold in no time.

The children stopped along the path for their own little feast, just to make sure they were as delicious as they looked. The strawberry chunks in the cake mixture tasted like chunks of the finest strawberry jam.

They happily shared their profits and requested the remaining punnets be made into another batch just for our family the following day.

I think we may just be returning to Trevathon farm next year.

Joining in with Country Kids

Please come and join me with your outdoor fun here on the linky. I set Country Kids up to share ideas for enjoying screen free active time with children in the fresh air. 146 posts later I still love sharing our weekly antics and learning from your posts too. Thank you for supporting the linky and inspiring me and others who join. Please keep the fun going, anywhere from the town to the beach so long as it is outside it is welcome here. Just grab the badge and link away. Remember to check out some of the other posts too, there are always some great ideas and plenty of creative family fun to inspire your next adventure.

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Coombe Mill

“Tales from the farmers wife” shares the funny and interesting happenings on our lovely holiday farm with Farmer Nick and our 6 children. A behind the scenes look on balancing family, farming, the holiday business and cooking for all.

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